700 Students Attend LGBT Career Fair in Tokyo

RAINBOW CROSSING TOKYO, an event that aims to connect job hunting college students with companies proactively making efforts to support the LGBT community in Japan was held on October 21 in Tokyo’s Bunkyou Ward. An estimated 700 students participated.

The participating companies were 24 major corporations that have services that are conscious of LGBT consumers, measures to treat same-sex partners of employees as spouses, and other such considerations for LGBT individuals. The companies appealed their initiatives at lectures, information sessions, and at individual booths.

Fumiko Kitamura of the Recruitment Division for Marui Group, a corporation which is developing a wide range of products and services for transgender individuals said, “It is important to create initiatives that please LGBT individuals. We’re still in the process of creating these systems, but we’d like to create interest by informing job hunters frankly of the current state of our initiatives.”

It is easy for LGBT job hunters to become distressed, unable to imagine a future for themselves due to a lack of visibility of LGBT workers. They also risk being harassed during interviews. According to a 2015 phone survey conducted by DENTSU, around 7% of the Japanese population identifies as LGBT. This year, there are an estimated 30,000 newly-graduating job hunters.

28 year old Yakushi Mika of the non-profit organization ReBIT, which sponsored the event said, “Connecting thoughtful companies with related parties will increase the number of options where individuals can work, and will allow them to work and live as themselves.”

The event was the first LGBT-related event to receive backing by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Federation of Economic Organizations, and the Japanese Trade Union Confederation.